Police Probe Into Graduate's Murder

Investigators Have No Suspects Yet

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED
December 5, 1984

New York City police have launched an intensive investigation into the stabbing death of Caroline R. Isenberg '84, a Harvard graduate who was murdered in her Upper West Side apartment building early Sunday morning.

Forty police detectives are currently interviewing witnesses and trying to track down the assailant on the basis of a description given by the victim while she was on the operating table, a police spokesman said yesterday.

The spokesman said there are no suspects in the case, which has received wide national media attention.

At a New York news conference earlier this week, police said that Isenberg had described her assailant as "male Black, light skinned, with an apparently clean-shaven face and a square jaw." Police believe the man killed Isenberg after trying to rape and rob her when she returned to her appartment at 1:30 a.m.

According to a close friend of Isenberg, the victim's family has been in constant touch with the investigators and as of yesterday had not heard of any new developments. Isenberg's father, Phillip, is a psychiatrist at the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital in Belmont.

The official autopsy revealed that Isenberg died of massive stab wounds, with complications from severe internal bleeding and a punctured liver.

The student source, who asked for anonymity, said that Isenberg's uncle, who is involved in New York politics has contacted Mayor Edward I. Koch and the chief of New York City police in order to monitor the case's proceedings.

A spokesman for the mayor said that Koch considers the murder a "terrible tragedy," but that he has not yet issued a formal statement in regards to the case.

Harvard friends of Isenberg, who was active in undergraduate drama and aspired to a career in acting, held an informal meeting yesterday in Lowell House.

Funeral services for Isenberg will be held at 11 o'clock this morning at Temple Israel in Brookline. Her family requests that donations be made in her name to the Harvard Radcliffe Drama Society.

One can reach the temple by taking the subway to the Longwood stop on the Green Line and walking to the intersection of Longwood Ave. are Riverway Ave.

"I think it's important that Harvard people keep in touch with what's happening," the close friend said "She was such a nice person. I just hope a lot of students can attend the funeral and services on campus."